Borderland Museums as Sites of Remembering and Forgetting: Between Lieux de Mémoire and Lieux d’Oubli
Recognising the renewed political relevance of borders in Europe over the past decade, alongside the particular role of border areas in the nationalisation of memory, this study aims to deepen our understanding of current memory practices in Europe. It will do so by focusing on European border museums (in borderlands). More specifically, the project will examine five border museums located at both the internal and external borders of the Schengen area as distinctive sites of memory and forgetting.
Drawing on the concept of lieux de mémoire (places of memory) developed by French historian Pierre Nora, as well as its counterpart, lieux d’oubli (places of forgetting), developed by Israeli historian Guy Beiner, the project seeks to illuminate the complex memory negotiations that occur in border areas between national centres, European institutions, local communities, and their cross-border neighbours.
Scientific Leader
- Ekaterina Mikhailova, Associate Professor in Border Studies, Barents Institute, University of Tromsø, Norway.
Network members
France
- Anne Laure Amilhat Szary, Professor at Grenoble University & Pacte research center, French Center for National Research / Sciences Po Grenoble.
Finland
- Virpi Kaisto, Postdoctoral Researcher, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland.
Luxembourg
- Machteld Venken, Professor of Contemporary Transnational History, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg
